The invention relates to a metal fitting for holding a front face of a drawer at its side walls, with a holding part, which is to be fastened to the surface of the front face on the inner side of the drawer, and a receiving part at each side wall of the drawer, which is to be fastened at or in the side wall of the drawer, for which an extended bracket-like projection, protruding from the side of the holding part averted from the front face, can be introduced into the receiving part and can be locked detachably by a locking element in the holding part, which locking element is acted upon by a spring under tension and can be swiveled between two stable end positions.
At the visible front side, drawers are provided at the present time predominantly with front faces, which protrude beyond the actual height and width dimensions of the drawer box and thus in the position in which they are pushed completely into the furniture carcass--corresponding to opening door leaves--rest laterally and, in the case of the top and bottom drawers of a cabinet or chest of drawers, also with the protruding upper or lower edge region on the front ends of the carcass walls. In this connection, the problem arises that the front faces must be aligned in such a manner to adjacent drawers, above, below or at the side, and/or to the side walls of the cabinet, cupboard or wardrobe or to adjacent door leaves, that they have an esthetically pleasing, exact alignment in the closed state. As long as the front faces were placed on the actual front walls of the drawers and screwed to this, such an alignment was relatively simple owing to the fact that the borehole for the fastening screws, screwed from the inside of the drawers through the front wall of the drawers, were dimensioned larger in the front wall than was the diameter of the shaft of the fastening screws, so that, when the fastening screws were loosened, the front face could be shifted in all directions within the limits specified by the overdimensioning of the boreholes. After the alignment, the front faces were then fixed to the front wall of the drawers by tightening the fastening screws. In recent times, however, drawers have been produced increasingly without a fixed front wall, that is, the front faces at the same time represent the front wall and must therefore be rigidly connectable with the drawer box, in order to stabilize the drawer in its front region. On the other hand, it must be nevertheless possible to make the alignment described. For this purpose, metal fitting holders have been developed which, for example, additionally assume the task of holding the front end of the runner of the pull-out guide, which supports the drawer, so that it can be pulled out of the cabinet, cupboard or wardrobe carcass (German Offenlegungsschrift 36 32 442). These metal fitting holders are disposed under the bottom of the drawer on the inner surface of the side walls protruding downward over the bottom. However, for fixing the front face sufficiently rigidly to the side walls, additional fastening means, in the form of comer connectors, must then be provided above the level of the bottom at least in the case of drawers of large vertical height. These corner connectors must also permit the front face to be adjusted and, furthermore, appear optically only as little as possible. Therefore, for drawers with side walls of plastic or hollow metal sections, used for particular applications, metal fastening fittings, disposed in the interior of the hollow sections of the side walls, were developed for front faces (German Offenlegungsschift 39 31 155), for which a holding part, which can be introduced into a receiving part that can be fixed adjustably in the cavity of the side walls, and locked there, can be fixed to the front face. The locking is accomplished, for example, by means of a hasp with a locking surface, which extends spirally or eccentrically and can be rotated by means of a tool, such as a screwdriver, in such a manner that it can be rotated from a position, which enables the protruding bracket of the holding part to be pushed in, into a locking position, in which the spiral locking surface embraces a projection at the bracket holding part. Due to the eccentric spiral course of the locking surface, tightening is produced by rotating the hasp. Due to this tightening, the front face is pulled firmly against the front end surfaces of the drawer side walls. At the same time, certain tolerance differences can be compensated for, particularly since the receiving part in turn is disposed in the side wall of the drawer so that it can be adjusted in the transverse direction, the pull-out direction of the drawer, as well as in the vertical direction. The known front face metal holding fitting has been entirely satisfactory. Because of its complex construction, the metal fitting is relatively expensive to manufacture. Moreover, the locking of the holding part in the receiving part by actuating the locking element by means of a tool harbors the danger that, when installed by untrained personnel or subsequently adjusted by a private person, the locking bar no longer is tightened sufficiently firmly and the front face can then become loose and be shifted once again. This danger does not exist if the metal holding fitting is constructed in the initially mentioned manner (European publication 0 636 327) in such a manner, that the actual locking bar element can be swiveled between two end positions and is acted upon by a spring under tension, which is disposed in such a manner, that the locking element is bistable, that is, when the locking element is introduced, it is swiveled from the one stable end position, in which the holding part can be introduced, into the receiving part and this locking element then, after passing through a dead center position, automatically snaps into the locking position and, at the same time, carries along a hook, which is provided at the holding part and engages a recess in the locking element. The tension on the spring presses the front face against the front end surfaces of the side walls. By exerting a tensile force on the front face, which is larger than the tension on the spring, the holding part can, however, be pulled back out of the receiving part. In other words, the spring must be installed with a high tension, so that the front face cannot accidentally pop off when the drawer, for example, is closed with momentum and the front face jerks against the carcass of the cabinet, cupboard or wardrobe.